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NOTE: This is the first installment of a 6-part weekly series about some of the most successful video entrepreneurs on YouTube. Each segment will spotlight performers and personalities that go beyond the one-hit viral video and build a loyal audience. Their online presence reaches multi-millions and has gained them entry into the YouTube Partner Program, which splits revenue and helps the BoomTubers develop their growing business.

BoomTuber #1: ShayCarl and the ShayTards

Sometime this year, online video comedian Shay Butler and his family’s YouTube channels will likely pass a half-billion upload views. At the heart of that success is a quintessential man-child. Butler, best known as ShayCarl, has created a series of reality shows that could draw comparisons to a cleaned-up Osbournes, adds a dash of “Tool Time” sensibility and finishes with a question that sparks many classic American family sitcoms: How did HE get HER to marry HIM?

ShayCarl may play the fool to wife Katilette’s exasperated straightwoman on YouTube, but he’s not clowning around when it comes to making those videos a business. His collaborative production company, recently featured in The New York Times, is just one of many examples of how he’s parlayed comedic snippets into a budding online mini-empire. But that manic part? Yeah, that’s real. After sending seven questions via email to Butler, I received a 2,000+ word block of text in response.

What he sent was an epic tale about a young man seeking his place in the world, happening upon YouTube and finding his way to internet stardom. Here’s that story:

Shay begins...

"It was a dark and stormy night." I was born on March 5 1980 in Logan, Utah to my parents Carl and Laurie Butler. I am now 31 years old. I am the oldest of 4 kids. We lived in Logan, Utah till I was 4 years old and my parents decided to move to Phoenix, Arizona so that my dad could go to college as an electrical engineer. Four years later after, he graduated, he got a job in Pocatello, Idaho working for a semi conductor plant. Growing up in Pocatello I played multiple sports including basketball, football, track, baseball and really got into skiing. There was a mountain called Pebble Creek Ski resort that was less than 30 minutes away and we went there every chance we got. A couple summers I worked clearing trees, brush and rocks from the mountain in exchange for a season pass. My Junior and Senior year became dedicated to skiing as often as possible. I stopped playing almost all sports except for soccer and would ski 60 to 80 days a winter. Often skipping class or running up to the hill to get a few runs in after school.